3. Suprasegmentals
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Suprasegmental features are those
aspects of speech that involve more than
single sound segments.
The principal suprasegmentals are:
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3.1 The syllable structure
σ
Onset
Rime
Nucleus
k
r
æ
Coda
k
t
2
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Open syllable: bar, tie
Closed syllable: bard, tied
English Syllable: (((C)C)C)V((((C)C)C)C)
Chinese syllable: (C)V(C)
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Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)
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When there is a choice as to where to
place a consonant, it is put into the onset
rather than the coda.
Cf. tell and telling – resyllabification

te- + -lling
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Resyllabification

bottle  bottler, call  calling, cool 
cooler, deal  dealer/dealing, fall 
falling, fell  felling, feel  feeling, fool 
fooling, football  footballer, full  fully,
girl  girlish, howl  howling, jell  jelly,
kill  killer/killing, mail  mailing, pull 
puling, roll  roller, seal  sealing, sell 
selling, whale  whaling/whaler, whole 
wholly, yell  yelling, …
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Sonority scale
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It is interesting to find that in English
consonant clusters in onset and coda
positions disallow many consonant
combinations.


For example, we can have help, lump, pray,
and quick, but not *hepl, *lupm, *rpay, or
*wqick.
It is found that a sonority scale is at work.
The degree of sonority of different classes
of sound affects their possible positions
in the syllable:
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
Sonority scale:
Most sonorous
Least sonorous
5
4
3
2
1
Vowels
Approximants
Nasals
Fricatives
Stops
7
8

In a word such as cracked, the sonority of
each sound gradually rises to a peak at
the nucleus and then falls at the coda:
5
4
3
2
1 *
k
*
*
*
r
æ
k
*
t
9
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This explains why *rkatk is not allowed:
5
4 *
3
2
1
r
*
*
*
k
æ
*
t
k
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Problems with the sonority scale

Consider the case of silk and sickle. They
consist of the same sounds, but are
arranged in a different order. Whereas silk
follows the correct sequence of the
sonority scale, sickle does not.

The traditional practice is to take sickle as a
disyllabic word so that [kl] forms a syllable of
its own, with [l] being considered to be
syllabic.
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
The case with [s] in the onset position
also behaves unusually, in that it can
combine with almost any onset to form a
cluster of up to three consonants, e.g.
[spl-], [spr-], [str-], [skw-].
Two views have been found to explain this.


One is to take [s] as a separate syllable, i.e. to
treat words like stock as disyllabic, but this is
however against most native speakers’
intuition.
Another view is to take such a segment as an
“appendix”.
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Phonotactics
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
The rules that describe possible
sequences of sounds for forming English
words.
Language can differ in their phonotactic
rules, so that mbotto might be a possible
word of Swahili, or psore a possible word
of Greek, but they are not possible words
in English.
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Phonotactic rule 1:
Sequences of repeated consonants are
not possible.
/sssitttt/
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry
could have sworn a low, hissing voice
said, ‘Brazil, here I come…Thanksss,
amigo.’
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Phonotactic rule 2:
The glottal fricative /h/ never occurs in the
coda of a syllable.

This rules out the possibility of beh.
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To rule out flezk and zipb
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Other coda rules:
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If the second consonant in a complex coda is
voiced, the first consonant in the coda must
also be voiced.
When a non-alveolar nasal is in a coda
together with a non-alveolar obstruent, they
must have the same place of articulation, and
the obstruent must be a voiceless stop.
Two obstruents in a coda together must have
the same voicing.
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To rule out psore and mbotto
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Basic onset rules:
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/ŋ/ is not a possible onset.
Complex onsets may not contain affricates or /h/.
Two-consonant complex onsets may
contain either:
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A. first consonant: any obstruent other than /s/;
second consonant: liquid or glide (l,r,j,w).
B. first consonant: /s/; second consonant: nasal,
liquid, glide or voiceless obstruent (except //).
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